Adam Arnold, Sky News Online
A funeral has been held in Spain for two British children apparently suffocated by their mother in a hotel room.
Lianne Smith, 43, has admitted asphyxiating Rebecca, five, and her 11-month-old brother Daniel with a plastic bag and is in prison on suspicion of murder.
She said she had been worried that the authorities would take them away, after her husband and the children’s father Martin Smith, 45, was arrested over alleged child sex offences.
Mrs Smith will not be attending the funeral in the seaside resort town of Lloret de Mar where the youngsters were found dead.
Their mother is currently in jail in Girona and was not released temporarily to go to the service on the Costa Brava.
The children’s bodies were discovered at the Hotel Miramar on May 18. The funeral was held in Sant Roma church.
The 16th century Gothic chapel was filled with white flowers and prayers were read at the ceremony, which lasted about half an hour.
Representatives of the town’s civic administration were present along with British consular officials.
The children were buried in the local cemetery afterwards.
The priest who conducted the ceremony and did not want to be named described it as “moving”.
It was a private affair “to show respect for the children”, he added.
The Smith family fled the UK in 2007 after Mr Smith, originally from North Shields, was arrested.
He allegedly jumped bail while facing charges of rape of a child under 16, gross indecency with a girl under 16, indecent assault of a girl under 16 and attempted rape of a girl under 16.
Mr Smith had been one of Britain’s most wanted men until Spanish police tracked him down and detained him last month.
Rebecca and Daniel Smith died around the time their father was then extradited to Britain.
The Sky